Beyond What is Given

by Rebecca Yarros

  I deepened the kiss, stroking my tongue against his, and he took control, tilting my head to get a better angle. His hands shifted lower, cupping my ass, and he lifted me off the chair. I wrapped my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist, locking my ankles behind his back.

  My fingers ran through his hair. Lips caressing, teeth nipping, tongues stroking, soothing—our kiss consumed each of my senses. He slipped one of his hands under my dress, and then the other, until he held me by bare skin. He lightly squeezed the backs of my thighs, his fingers achingly close to the small strip of lace that separated them. “I love your skin,” he whispered against my mouth. Then he kissed down my throat, sucking the tender patch of skin that met my collarbone.

  “And the way you smell…” He ran his nose along the line of my neck. “I could live here, Sam.”

  I tugged his hair, bringing his mouth back to mine, and sucked his tongue into my mouth where it belonged. He groaned, tightening his grip on my thighs, and then we were moving. He tore his mouth away from mine long enough to press my head to his shoulder as he carried me down the stairs to the cabin of the boat.

  As soon as we cleared the ceiling, his mouth was mine, our kisses taking a harder, more desperate edge. I tugged at his shirt, but it caught on my legs. “Impatient?” he asked against my mouth.

  “Get it off. You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for this.” My mouth watered at the idea of tracing every line of his phenomenal body with my tongue.

  “I was thinking the same thing.”

  He carried me with one hand and opened a door behind me with the other. One more step and he lowered me to a bed, complete with the softest sheets I’d ever felt. “The bed is made?” I asked as he stepped back.

  “Photo shoot this morning for the brochure. Would you like a tour?” he motioned to his back.

  “Of you? Yes, please.” I sat up on my knees at the edge of the bed. “Now.”

  He reached behind and pulled his shirt over his head. I took it off his arms and tossed it, too intent on what was in front of me to see where it landed.

  Every muscle in my core clenched. Grayson was made for sex, ripped, his muscles not just defined but built, thick and strong. His skin was a beautiful bronze and incredibly soft to my touch. My fingers worshiped the lines of his eight-pack abs. “You’re… God, I don’t even have words for what you are.” My breath became choppy as I trailed over his pecs, and he sucked in his breath when my thumbs grazed his nipples. I leaned forward and ran my tongue over one, and he hissed, his hands weaving through my hair to hold me as I gently scraped my teeth over him, then kissed the flat disc.

  Sitting back on my heels, my eyes devoured every incredible inch of him. His stomach tensed under my hands, and I looked up to be held captive by the most intense, hungry stare I’d ever been given. “What are you thinking?”

  “That every single weight I’ve ever lifted, or mile I’ve run has been worth it for you to look at me like that.” He caressed my cheek, then slid his hand down to the straps of my dress.

  I crossed my arms in front of my stomach, a chill overpowering the heat in his gaze. “Grayson…I’m not…” I motioned to his torso.

  He raised an eyebrow as his fingers toyed with the zipper under my arm. “Trust me.”

  I’d never been self-conscious about my body before. Stop it. You rock your curves. Eyes locked on each other, I raised my arms above my head. Once he finished unzipping me, I nodded my assent, and he tugged the fabric gently over my head.

  Was his breath shaky on that inhale? I opened my eyes and found his all over me. My skin tingled, heated wherever he paused in appreciation, his mouth dropping as his eyes locked onto my lace-cupped breasts, my stomach, then my red lace panties.

  “Samantha. Damn. You’re perfect.” He reached for me, then paused. “If I start—if I touch you now…” He shook his head.

  We were at his threshold, and he was giving me a choice. Like there is even one to make. I wanted him. I needed Grayson’s weight, those gloriously stacked muscles on me, his strong hands on my body. I needed him so deep that I would still taste him tomorrow—smell him on my skin. I was done waiting.

  Reaching behind me, I unclasped my red lace bra and slid the straps down my arms one at a time. He never looked away, and I witnessed the moment desire for me overpowered his every other thought. I actually ached, more turned on by the possessive, predatory widening of his eyes than I ever had been with anyone else.

  Once my bra met his discarded shirt, I leaned my breast into his outstretched hand. “Touch me. Don’t worry and don’t stop. I want this. I want you.”

  He snapped.

  One moment he was in front of me, and the next he was over me, pinning me to the bed as he kissed the breath out of me, one elbow bracing his weight and the other palming my breast. I gasped as he rolled and lightly pinched my nipple. A devious smile lit his face, and my heart stuttered. Holy shit. He was always hot, but smiling? Grayson was beautiful.

  I cried out when his mouth latched to my nipple. His tongue swirled and danced, flicking in time as his fingers gave my other breast the same attention. My eyes fluttered shut, trying to absorb the sensations as shots of lightning ran straight through my veins.

  He kissed my mouth, settling between my legs. His chest crushed my breasts, abraded the sensitized skin as his hand palmed my curves, resting on my ass. I looped my leg over his hips and rocked into him, using his erection to gain some much-needed friction against my clit.

  “Off,” I mumbled, my foot running down his cargo shorts.

  He stripped quickly to his boxer briefs, pulling a condom from his wallet and tossing it next to us on the bed. Even his thighs were hot, roped with heavy muscles. “Better?” he asked against my neck, kissing his way down between my breasts.

  “Much.”

  He grinned, and I had an all-new definition of who my Grayson was. This was him—needy, happy, hungry…mine.

  He kissed every inch of my stomach, sucking lightly where my stomach dipped from my rib cage. He treated me like the most important test he could study for, returning to the places that made me gasp, cataloguing what I liked, what made me writhe.

  Grayson teased his way down my legs, pausing behind my knees when I sucked in my breath, then pressed his thumbs into the arches of my feet. He was turning me into a puddle of pure hedonistic desire one kiss, one touch at a time, with the patience of someone who’d planned this for a while. My hips rolled as his breath skimmed the lace of my panties.

  His grin was nowhere to be found when he locked his eyes on mine and waited for me to nod, then took my panties with him as his hands slid down my legs. He massaged his way back up my legs, keeping agonizing inches away from where I desperately needed him to touch me.

  I was going to combust if he didn’t do something about it.

  “Grayson, you’re killing me.” My body wouldn’t stay still, needing contact, friction.

  “Good. I’ve been dying since the morning I saw your ass on my kitchen counter.” He squeezed the curves for punctuation, then rose to kiss me. I whimpered into his mouth, and he bit gently into my lower lip.

  “Samantha.” My name on his lips felt almost as good as his fingers parting me, sliding through my folds until he brushed against my clit.

  Amazing. I arched against him. “More. Please, Grayson. More.”

  “Do you know how long I’ve planned this? How many nights I lay in bed across from your room and thought about how you’d feel under my hands? How many times you’d bend over and I’d want nothing more than to step behind and slide into you?” His fingers swept through me again, and he groaned as he circled my clit. “How wet you’d be.” His breathing accelerated and his jaw locked as he slid one finger inside me. My muscles clamped down, and I couldn’t control the moan that slipped free. Another finger joined, and he kissed me, his tongue thrusting at the same slow, deliberate speed his fingers were. “How tight you’d be,” he whispered against my lips.

&nbs
p; Everything in me coiled, centering in my core, winding higher with every word he spoke, every press of his fingers. He used his thumb to apply pressure to my clit as his fingers worked within me. “God, Sam. I’ve dreamed of this, fantasized a million different ways. Holding you. Exploring you. Having sex with you. Making love to you.” He kissed me gently, and I melted a little more, despite the tension building to a breaking point within me. “Fucking you.”

  Leave it to Grayson to make that word the sexiest thing I’d ever heard.

  His fingers sped up, curled inward, and his kiss turned carnal. I rode his hand, arching into him through every stroke, my fingers biting into the skin of his back. My eyes shut, every sense too overwhelmed with pleasure to take the overload. “Grayson…” His name became my chant as the tension built to the breaking point.

  “Look at me,” he demanded. “I need to see you come.”

  My eyes flew open as he pinched my clit and stroked my G-spot simultaneously. I cried out soundlessly as my orgasm ripped through me, sending pure bliss through every cell in my body.

  His thumb circled those nerves as he brought me down, then pressed lightly, sending another jolt through me. His hand slid away, and though I’d just had the most astonishing orgasm of my life, I felt another spark ignite as he licked the pad of his middle finger. The one that had been inside me.

  He groaned. “You taste better than I ever imagined, and believe me, I imagined it a lot.” His eyes were wild, his infamous control slipping by the moment.

  I did this to him. Pushed him to the brink of madness. It wasn’t enough.

  I wanted him absolutely fucking insane.

  With one hand on his shoulder, I urged him to his back, careful to snag the condom before he rolled onto it. It was his turn to gasp as I licked my way down his chest, savoring each line, breathing in his scent mingling with mine.

  I worshiped the sexy V that led to his boxer briefs, kissing the tensed muscles as his hands wove into my hair. “Sam,” he groaned.

  “Do you know how long I’ve wanted to do this?” I countered. “You drive me crazy at the gym, at home, anywhere you feel the need to take your shirt off. It’s like you have a direct line to my panties with each inch of skin you show.” I nipped at his flesh, then kissed it. “It’s not fair.”

  “Sam,” he whispered, and I met his eyes, which had gone almost feral. “Between us? You have all the power. All the control. You always have. I’m hard for you the minute you so much as smile, or curse, or walk in the damned room.”

  “Show me.”

  I gripped his erection through the fabric of his boxer briefs, and his hips bucked as he sucked his breath in through his teeth. Emboldened, I ran my fingers along the elastic, and then under. Then I took them off, never once breaking eye contact. The intimacy of what we were doing was nearly overwhelming.

  My tongue skimmed my lower lip as my hand unerringly found him. Of course he was huge. Was there anything about Grayson that wasn’t built like a Greek god? He groaned, his fingers tightening against my scalp.

  He was hot in my hands, smooth and rigid, soft at the tip when I ran my thumb over him, wiping away the small bead that had formed. Then I gave in to the need to know how he tasted and ran my tongue along the underside of his shaft until I circled the head. My hand gripped his base as I took him inside my mouth, humming with pleasure as he called my name. “Samantha. Fuck. Yes… No. God, you can’t. I’ll come.” His legs trembled beneath me.

  “So?” I whispered, then swirled my tongue over him. “Come.”

  “I need to be inside you,” he growled, leaning up on his elbows.

  I ripped open the foil wrapper and rolled the condom onto him. “Okay.”

  He didn’t need to be told twice, and flipped me to my back. This wasn’t the patient, controlled man who’d just brought me to orgasm. Grayson was hanging on to his control by a thread. I could tell by the tension in his muscles, the firm set of his mouth.

  That thread needed to be cut.

  He knelt between my thighs, and I raised my knees as he nudged my entrance. “Grayson,” I urged when he paused.

  He searched my face for an excruciating moment before shaking his head. “No.”

  What? Was he seriously going to stop?

  His mouth found mine, thrusting his tongue at the same moment his fingers worked his magic against my hypersensitive clit. “Fuck you feel so good,” he whispered as my body responded, flaring to life. “I can’t wait to be inside you, Sam. I’m going to ride you until you come screaming my name. You’re never going to look at me again without thinking of how many ways I can think of to get you off, and believe me, I’m very imaginative.”

  His words pushed me higher. “You have a surprisingly dirty mouth, you know that?” I sucked his lower lip into my mouth as my hips rocked against him, needing more than the external stimulation. I needed him inside me.

  “I have a dirty mind. I’m just letting you see inside it.”

  My heart stopped for a breath of a second. I had his walls down, open for me.

  “Sam?” He paused.

  I shed every reservation, every inhibition, and kissed him like my life depended on our mingled breaths. I gave myself over to the sensations his fingers brought and then his lips at my breasts until I couldn’t stop the motion of my hips.

  Sweat beaded on Grayson’s forehead. “Grayson, please. Please.” How much more did he expect me to take?

  He positioned himself over me, resting his weight on his elbows as I almost drowned in the depths of his eyes. “Anything you want, Samantha. It’s yours. I’m yours. All of me.”

  Inch by slow inch, he entered me. There was a slight burn where he stretched me, but it was nothing compared to the exquisite way he fit. “Oh my God,” I moaned as he slid home.

  His eyes widened. “You. Feel…” His forehead dropped to mine. “Better than perfect.” He kissed me sweetly, and my eyes pricked. “My Samantha.”

  I rolled my hips, and we both groaned. Then he raised one knee toward my chest and slid even deeper, hitting a spot that had me crying out, then keening as he began to thrust powerfully in perfect time.

  Each stroke lifted me higher, wound my muscles tighter. I met him with each push of his hips until sweat dripped off us both. Between our thrusts, hands, and tongues, I lost track of where I ended and he began.

  “Grayson…” I whispered as my muscles seized, locked. I was so close, hovering on the precipice. He shifted his angle so he rubbed against my clit with his next thrusts, and I went spinning off into the void, holding onto him as my only solid ground.

  He called out my name as he came, tensing above me, his eyes unguarded as he pulsed within me. In that moment, he felt like what he proclaimed—mine.

  Grayson collapsed next to me, peppering my shoulder with kisses. “That was… I don’t even have words for that.”

  I found the strength to smile. “Me, either. I say we rest before you talk me into round number two.”

  He laughed. “You’ll like it, I promise.”

  I leaned on my elbow above him and kissed him, savoring, trying to commit every second of this moment to memory. “Any time. Any place.”

  He stroked his thumb across my lower lip, his eyes lighting with a fire I thought would be extinguished. “I’ll hold you to that. But I’ll let you sleep…for a few hours.”

  He cleaned up, and then pulled the covers over us, drawing me into the hollow of his body. Of course we fit together perfectly. The heat from his body and steady heartbeat lulled me to sleep within minutes.

  Joey calling Grayson’s name woke me up just as quickly. “You’d better not be in there, Grayson Masters! I found Sam’s shoes, so I know you’re not alone!” Sunlight streamed in the small porthole.

  Oh. My. God.

  “Shit!” Grayson shouted, sitting straight up and covering me with the sheet. “Do not come any closer, Josephine!”

  “God damn it, Gray! The photographer is going to be here in a half hour!” she yell
ed from inside the cabin.

  “That was yesterday,” he replied.

  “We moved it to today.” She was close enough that I heard her sigh. “Okay, I’m going to leave Sam’s shoes out here. Just… For God’s sake change the sheets. There’s an extra set in the closet.”

  She retreated and Grayson kissed me. “Good morning. Perhaps we should move quickly?”

  “You think?” I nearly shouted. I’d never gotten dressed or changed sheets that fast in my life. I held my shoes in one hand as Grayson helped me down the ladder, and then strapped my wedges on.

  He led me out the side door, where Joey stood in jeans and polo. “Seriously, you two?”

  Grayson lifted my hand to his mouth and kissed the palm. “Yeah.”

  She rolled her eyes. “What am I going to do with a boat that smells like sex?”

  Grayson shrugged. “Make it part of the package?” When he turned to me, his playful smirk grew into a full-blown smile. The morning sun shone, lighting the silver flecks in his eyes, and kill-me-now, a dimple appeared. A fucking dimple. He radiated simple…joy.

  My heart warmed to almost burning. Oh, no.

  He kissed my mouth soundly. “I need to grab my wallet from the boat, meet me at the car?”

  I nodded, unable to say anything.

  Joey’s mouth dropped open in the way mine would have if I hadn’t been paralyzed. “Wow.” She crossed the distance between us and hugged me, holding me like I was something precious and sacred. “Sam. Wow. Thank you. That’s really Gray…and I haven’t seen him in years. I knew I liked you for a reason.”

  “Get off Sam, Joey,” Grayson called over from the door, wallet in hand. She let me go and hugged him before she ran inside.

  “You okay?” he asked, his smile wider after another kiss, and my chest tightened in a way I couldn’t deny…or allow.

  I nodded and forced a smile to match his as we walked toward the car.

  This was not okay. Not even close. Taking down his walls had shattered mine.